JU86P
I got this information in an email from an aviator friend of mine, I
have no idea of its source. I like unusual items Shortly before the outbreak of war the
German Junkers company had begun work on the Junkers 86P, a
high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft developed from the obsolescent
Ju86 bomber. In fact, the new reconnaissance variant bore little
resemblance to the earlier bomber: the open gun positions were faired
over; there was a pressure cabin for the two-man crew; extra panels
fitted to the outer wings increased the span by just under ten feet to
84 feet and turbochargers fitted to the two Jumo compression-ignition
diesel engines improved the aircraft’s high-altitude performance. With
these changes the Junkers 86P was able to cruise at altitudes around
40,000ft, beyond the reach of fighters during the early part of the war. The first Junkers 86P was delivered to the
Luftwaffe in the summer of 1940 and during the latter half of the year
the type operated at irregular intervals over the British Isles on
high-altitude reconnaissance missions. At that time the British radar
chain was unable to track such high-flying aircraft once they had
crossed the coast and the flights went almost unnoticed by the defences.
In the winter of 1940-41 the Ju86P was used in clandestine missions high
over the Soviet Union as part of the reconnaissance effort in
preparation for the German invasion in June 1941; these flights
continued after the campaign began.
In May 1942 a few Junkers 86s were delivered to the
2 Staffel of Long Range Reconnaissance Gruppe 123, based at Kastelli on
Crete, from where they flew high-altitude missions over the Cairo and
Alexandria areas. These flights continued unhindered until August 24th
when Fg Off G Reynolds flying a stripped-down Spitfire Mk V armed with
two .50 cal machine guns succeeded in intercepting one of the Ju86s. He
scored hits on the starboard engine and set it on fire; the Junkers
dived away and he lost it. There is some evidence that this was the
action in which the commander of 2 Staffel, Hauptmann Bayer, was shot
down into the sea, he and his observer ditched in their Ju86 and were
later rescued by seaplane. Some accounts state that Reynolds had taken his
Spitfire Mk V up to 42,000ft to engage the Junkers; others have spoken
of later interceptions of Ju86s by Spitfire Vs in the same area at
45,000ft and even 50,000ft. After a careful examination of the available
evidence the author is inclined to disregard reports of Spitfire Vs
intercepting enemy aircraft at altitudes much above 40,000ft, no matter
how many pieces had been taken off the aircraft to lighten it, a Merlin
engine with single-stage supercharging would not have developed enough
power to enable a Spitfire to manoeuvre at such an altitude, moreover,
above 45,000ft a pilot in an unpressurised cabin even breathing pure
oxygen would have suffered such severe physiological problems that he
could have achieved little. The interceptions of the Junkers did take
place but it is probable that the German aircraft were flying at or
below 40,000ft. An explanation for the excessive altitudes stated, if
they did indeed come from the pilots, could be altimeter errors or
mis-readings by pilots suffering from a measure of oxygen starvation.
In the spring of 1942, the R version of the Ju86
appeared (above image). This was a P version modified at the factory to have its wing
span further extended, this time by more than 20ft to almost 105ft and
with slightly more powerful diesels with nitrous oxide injection to
increase the high-altitude performance still further. As a result, these
improvements gave the Ju86R altitude performance of over 45,000ft. During the early months of 1942, the RAF bombing
attacks on Germany had begun to bite and there were persistent demands
from the Nazi leadership for retaliatory attacks on Britain. With the
main part of the German bomber force tied down in support of the
Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union, there was little to spare for a renewed
blitz on Britain. The few bomber units remaining in the west did their
best, but in the face of the continually strengthening British defences
their attacks were costly and achieved little. So, to strengthen the
force attacking England, a few Ju86Rs were converted into high-altitude
bombers. In this role, the aircraft could carry only a single 550lb bomb
but it was judged that such attack would serve a useful propaganda
purpose if they demonstrated that German bombers could operate over
Britain by day with impunity. During the third week in August 1942, two Junkers
arrived at Beauvais in northern France. The Hohenkampfkommando began
final preparations for a series of stratospheric bombing attacks on
Britain. By the morning of August 24th all was ready and Oberfeldwebel
Horst Goetz took off for the first of these operations. Flying in the
aircraft as an observer was Leutnant Erich Sommer, the commander of the
unit. For the first hour of the flight the Junkers remained over France,
climbing steadily. Only when the bomber had reached 39,000ft did Goetz
turn north and, still climbing, headed towards his target. The Ju86R
crossed the coast near Selsey Bill, dropped its single bomb on Camberley
(the intended target was Aldershot) and left via Brighton having spent
thirty-five minutes over Britain without interference from the defences.
Shortly afterwards, the other Ju86R attacked Southampton. Fighter
Command sent up 15 Spitfire Mk Vs to intercept the raiders but with no
success. A pair of Spitfires of the Polish 309 Sqn were directed onto
Goetz’s Junkers, the pilots reported that the intruder was flying at
38,000ft and ‘identified’ the type as a Dornier 217, a more frequent
visitor to Britain and which also had two engines and twin fins. Because
the wing of the Junkers was nearly twice as long as that of the Dornier,
the fighter pilots had mis-judged the range and thought themselves
closer to the bomber than was in fact the case. That evening the German Propaganda Ministry
jubilantly announced that the Hohenkampfkommando had carried out the
first of its daylight revenge attacks on Britain, all aircraft had
returned safely. There was no hint that the grandiosely-titled unit
operated but two aircraft. On the following day, August 25th, Goetz and Sommer
were again over Britain. This time, more confident of their immunity
from interception, they flew a meandering course which took them over
Southampton, Swindon, round the north of London to Stanstead where they
released their bomb, down the eastern side of the capital and crossed
the coast near Shoreham. The bomber spent more than an hour over
Britain, the intention being to sound as many sirens as possible and
cause the maximum disruption. The British authorities refused to play
this game however, single intruders were treated as reconnaissance
aircraft without bombs. The sirens remained silent. 9 Spitfire Mk Vs
were scrambled to engage but none was able to get close to the bomber,
which was again ‘identified’ as a Dornier 217. From their vantage point
Goetz and Sommer watched as interested spectators while the fighters
zig-zagged, attempting to gain altitude without overshooting the bomber,
one by one the Spitfires broke off the chase. On the morning of the 28th one of the Ju86Rs
attacked Bristol. The policy of not sounding the sirens for single
intruders had been a calculated risk, justifiable in wartime but on this
occasion the citizens of Bristol had to pay the penalty. The bomb landed
on Broad Weir, almost in the centre of the city, during the morning rush
hour. It exploded close to 3 buses, wrecking all of them and killing
most of the people on board. It was the worst single bomb incident
suffered by Bristol during the war and resulted in 48 people killed, 26
seriously injured and 30 slightly injured. During the following ten
days, the Junkers carried out 8 further attacks. At this time the Spitfire HF VI equipped 124 and
616 Sqns. This version was fitted with extended wingtips which increased
the span by 3ft 7ins and for the pilot there was a partial pressure
cabin; with these additions the Mk VI weighed 180lbs more than the
standard Mk V. Like the earlier version however, the HF VI was fitted
with a single-stage Merlin and so could not intercept anything flying
above 40,000ft. On August 29th, a pair of HF VIs of 124 Sqn climbed to
37,000ft but were unable to get within 3 miles of the Ju86R cruising
above them. The Mk IX version of the Spitfire, which had just
entered service, was fitted with the new Merlin 61 and that possessed
two-stage supercharging. With this refinement, the Merlin delivered
600hp at 40,000ft, substantially more than was possible at such an
altitude from its predecessor. To combat the high-altitude Junkers, a
special unit was formed with modified Mk IXs. One of the pilots selected
was Pilot Officer Prince Emanuel Galitzine who had been born in Russia
in 1918, brought to England the following year and who had lived here
since. He now gives us his recollections of the operations to combat the
high-flying German bombers. “At the end of August 1942 I was flying Spitfire
IXs with 611 Sqn at Redhill when, following a medical examination, I was
pronounced fit for very high altitude operations and sent to join the
Special Service Flight which was then forming at Northolt. On arrival
there, I learnt the purpose of the new unit. During the previous couple
of weeks the Germans had been sending in single Junkers bombers at
altitudes above 40,000ft to attack targets in southern England.
Conventional fighter units had found these high-flying raiders
impossible to catch, with medically selected and specially trained
pilots flying modified Spitfire IXs, we hoped to do better. There were 6
of us in the Special Service Flight which was under the command of Flt
Lt Jimmy Nelson, an American ex-Eagle Squadron pilot. Training for the new role began immediately. First
of all we were put on a special diet which included plenty of sweets,
chocolate, eggs and bacon, fresh orange juice and other things which at
that time were either strictly rationed or else unobtainable. There is
now some doubt regarding the effectiveness of this diet in improving our
performance at high altitude but it certainly did a lot for our morale
and increased our standing with the girls. As part of our training we were sent to Farnborough
where we underwent tests in the decompression chamber and had a short
course of lectures from the doctors there. To conserve our strength and
delay the onset of oxygen shortage at high altitude, we were enjoined to
make all our movements slowly and deliberately. Everything had to be
done in an icy calm manner.
At the end of the first week in September the
Flight received the first of our Spitfire IXs which had been modified
for very high altitude operations. The aircraft, serial BF273, (above) had been
lightened in almost every way possible. A lighter wooden propeller had
been substituted for the normal metal one, all of the armour had been
removed as had the four machine guns, leaving an armament of only 2
Hispano 20mm cannons. The aircraft was finished in a special lightweight
finish, which gave it a colour rather like Cambridge blue and all
equipment not strictly necessary for high altitude fighting was removed.
It had the normal wingtips. A pressure cabin would have been very nice
but the HF VII, essentially a Mk IX with a pressure cabin, was not yet
read for operations. On September 10th I made my first flight in the
modified Spitfire IX and found it absolutely delightful to handle.
During the war I flew 11 versions of the Spitfire and this was far and
away the best. The 450lb reduction in weight was immediately noticeable
once airborne and with the Merlin 61 she had plenty of power and was
very lively. I made a second flight that day to test the cannons, during
which I took her up to 43,000ft. I stayed above 40,000ft for some time
and found it quite exhilarating, it was a beautiful day and I could see
along the coast of England from Dover to Plymouth and almost the whole
of the northern coast of France as far as Belgium and Holland. During this flight I wore an electrically heated
flying suit which kept me warm and comfortable. On September 12th I made my second high altitude
flight and this time it was in earnest. That morning, it had been my
turn to wait at readiness and at 09.27hrs I was scrambled to meet an
aircraft being watched on radar climbing to height over France; it
looked suspiciously like another one of the high-flying raiders. Climbing away at full throttle, the Spitfire went
up like a lift but there was a long way to go – 40,000ft is about 7.5
miles up. I climbed in a wide spiral over Northolt to 15,000ft then the
ground controller informed me that the incoming aircraft was over
mid-Channel and heading towards the Portsmouth area, I was ordered onto
a south-westerly heading to cut him off. After several course
corrections I finally caught sight of the enemy aircraft as it was
flying up the Solent, I was at about 40,000ft and he was slightly higher
and out to starboard. I continued my climb and headed after him, closing
in until I could make out the outline of a Junkers 86, By then, I was
about half a mile from him and we were both at 42,000ft to the north of
Southampton. The German crew had obviously seen me, because I
saw the bomb jettison, the aircraft nose go up to gain altitude and turn
for home. My Spitfire had plenty of performance in hand, however. I
jettisoned my 30-gal slipper tank and had little difficulty in following
him in the climb and getting about 200ft above the bomber. At this stage
I kept reminding myself “Take it easy, conserve your strength, keep icy
calm”. The grey-blue Junkers seemed enormous and it trailed a long,
curling condensation trail. It reminded me of a film I had once seen of
an aerial view of an ocean liner ploughing through a calm sea and
leaving a wake. I positioned myself for an attack and dived to
about 200yds astern of him, where I opened up with a 3-second burst. At
the end of the burst my port cannon jammed and the Spitfire slewed round
to starboard, then, as I passed through his slipstream, my canopy misted
over. It took about a minute to clear completely, during which time I
climbed back into position for the next attack. When I next saw the
Junkers he was heading southwards, trying to escape out to sea. I knew I
had to get right in close behind him if I was to stand any chance of
scoring hits, because it would be difficult to hold the Spitfire
straight when the starboard cannon fired and she went into a yaw. Again,
I dived to attack but when I was about a hundred yards away the bomber
made a surprisingly tight turn to starboard. I opened fire but the
Spitfire went into a yaw and fell out of the sky, I broke off the
attack, turned outside him and climbed back to 44,000ft. I carried out two further attacks on the Junkers.
On each of them my Spitfire yawed and fell out of the sky whenever I
opened fire with my remaining cannon, and my canopy misted over whenever
I passed through his slipstream. By the end of the fourth attack the
action had lasted about 45 minutes. My engine had been running at full
throttle for an hour and a quarter and my fuel was beginning to run low.
So when the bomber descended into a patch of mist I did not attempt to
follow. Instead I broke away and turned north east for home. How I
cursed that jammed cannon, had it not failed, I would certainly have
shot down the Ju86. As I neared the coast it became clear that I did not
have sufficient fuel to reach Northolt, so I landed at Tangmere to
refuel.” The pilot of the Ju86 had been Horst Goetz, on
another attack with Erich Sommer as his observer. Soon after the bomber
crossed the coast near Southampton, Goetz later recalled “Suddenly Erich, sitting on my right, said that
there was a fighter closing in from his side. I thought there was
nothing remarkable about that – almost every time we had been over
England in the Ju86, fighters had tried to intercept us. Then he said
that the fighter was climbing very fast and was nearly at our altitude.
The next thing, it was above us. I thought Erich’s eyes must have been
playing tricks on him, so I leaned over to his side of the cabin to see
for myself. To my horror I saw the Spitfire, a little above us and still
climbing.” Goetz acted fast. He jettisoned the bomb, switched
in full nitrous oxide injection to increase engine power and partially
depressurised the cabin so that there wouldn’t be an explosion if it was
pierced. He then pushed open the throttles and tried to outclimb his
assailant but, as we have seen, the Spitfire succeeded in getting above
him. Goetz managed to avoid the four attacks, then
escaped into a thin patch of mist. The Junkers landed at Caen so that
the crew could check the damage. There was only one hole, through the
port wing and as nothing appeared damaged the bomber continued on to its
base at Beauvais. Now it was clear that the period of immunity enjoyed
by the Junkers 86R over England was at an end; there would be no more
stratospheric bombing attacks by these aircraft. The combat between Goetz and Galitzine was almost
certainly the highest to take place during WWII. Significantly, the
movements of both aircraft were tracked by radar sets on the ground,
these provided an independent check on the general accuracy of the
altitudes stated. The action had a sequel nearly 33 years later, when
the author met Goetz at a Luftwaffe reunion and was able to put him in
touch with Galitzine. The two men became firm friends and together
stayed at the author’s home to recount their unique battle; later they
spoke by telephone with Erich Sommer, who now lives in Australia.
Galitzine no longer curses the jammed Hispano cannon, which robbed him
of an almost certain victory but which gained him two good friends.
Tongue in cheek, Horst Goetz commented “Emanuel and I have talked about our battle in
great detail and now we understand each other’s problems. The next time
we fly against each other, we shall be able to do things better”
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